Nice work if you can get it. Barely a month after he stepped down as the most powerful financier in the world, Ben Bernanke, the former Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, is reported to have received at least $250,000 for his appearance to speak in Johannesburg tomorrow before returning to America for another speech in Texas on Friday.

The money from South Africa and elsewhere has put Mr Bernanke in confessional mode. He admitted yesterday, for example, that the US Central Bank should have been more “aggressive” in its response to the financial crisis.